Funds Drive Copper, Aluminum To New Highs

This is not good for metal stampers, or their customers. When metals prices are driven off their fundamentals by speculating, no one knows a good “standard” price for the metal, and no one can quote future business with any kind of reliability.Dow Jones via Yahoo AsiaFunds sent flagship base metals copper and aluminum to new highs in Asia Tuesday, despite an absence of clear fundamental drivers, participants said. The London Metal Exchange’s benchmark copper contract hit an all-time high of $5,110 a metric ton, the latest in a string of records as speculators and new buy-and-hold investors continue to target metals markets. By 0520 GMT, LME copper had eased back to $5,085/ton, but is likely to re-challenge the record, heading into London trading hours, traders said.